Digital Power Tools That Change the Way We Design & Build: The Handibot

By making a CNC machine very small, ShopBot made the possibilities huge

For our Tech-Tacular design and technology special, we sought out game-changing power tools: Ones of such unique utility and intelligent design that the capabilities of the tool itself actually change the way we are able to design and build. We then looked for experienced users of the tool to interview on how and why these tools can make such a difference.

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For something that comes in a box, the Handibot is about as outside-of-the-box as you can get in terms of how we think of power tools. ShopBot Tools' ingenious, diminutive invention is the world's first mass-market digital power tool, and since its successful Kickstarter launch in 2013, has swiftly made its way into the hands of a diverse user base.

Like the Festool Domino, the Handibot takes an operation where one previously needed to bring the material over to a heavy stationary machine, then flips it the other way 'round; the Handibot is carried to the work and placed on top of it.

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That changes everything. The paradox to grasp is that this machine with a seemingly tiny cutting envelope—just 6" x 8" in the X- and Y-axes, 4" in the Z-axis—can work on pieces far larger than what the most gargantuan CNC mill can handle. The user simply registers their piece against the Handibot, and can move it wherever they need to, giving them infinite capacity.

Because the Handibot's applications are so impossibly broad, we spoke with three very different types of users to see what they're using theirs for. One uses it to help kids learn about robotics. Another uses it to build simple things around the house. And a third is using it to build an actual house, among other things!

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Paul Suplee, the Chef Roboticist

As if to confirm that there's no such thing as a typical Handibot user, the first one to respond to our outreach was Paul Suplee—a professional chef in Maryland. When he's not in the kitchen juggling pots or teaching classes in molecular gastronomy, Suplee—along with Will Mast, a systems engineer for NASA—runs Titanium Wrecks, Worcester County, Maryland's NASA House Robotics Team.

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Core77: What's your design/build background?

Paul Suplee: Absolutely none! I am a chef by trade who fell into the robotics competition arena when myself and two other parents decided that we wanted to start a FIRST Robotics team in 2014. [The FIRST Robotics Competition pits high school teams from around the world against each other to build robots, with the aim of giving students hands-on, real-world building and engineering experience.] I can honestly say, though, that over the last year and a half, I have learned more about design, implementation and prototyping than I ever thought possible.

How did you first hear about the Handibot?

Chris Thompson and Greg Armstrong are the leads of TEC Foundation, a nonprofit that promotes STEM by getting digital tools into students' hands. Their motto is "Make more geeks. Give geeks tools," and they have been ShopBot supporters/users for years. They have a full-sized ShopBot in their shop in Accomack County, Virginia and they use it extensively on their robots for their own First Robotics Challenge team, Team 1829, The Carbonauts.

While we had access to their ShopBot, it's a four-hour round trip to Virginia. We were worried about how to stay competitive, because other teams were using CNC routers fanatically, and we simply didn't have the resources for a large full-table ShopBot of our own. Thankfully Chris and the TEC Foundation, which we're a part of, gave us the opportunity to work with the Handibot.

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After using it, what was your first impression of the Handibot?

We were blown away by the accuracy and precision of the tool. When I look at the field of robotics, the first thing that I think of is precision. There is no room for wiggle or rattle, and the process of precision cutting and tooling is something that, as a non-engineer, I couldn't comprehend until I started working with engineers and tools such as the Handibot.

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In the beginning we were cutting out simple trophies for handing out at competition, but at present we are working on multiple projects that will be on board the robot as well as the shop (battery trays for our charging station, for example). Needless to say, it has found a home on our team, and it is hands-down the coolest tool that we have in our shop!

How does the Handibot fit into your workflow?

It's perfect for small projects and in our case, we use it for anything from cutting custom mounts for robot parts such as cameras and motor controllers, to cutting out homemade robot kits for kids. We are still perfecting our jigs which essentially will allow us to cut pieces of infinite sizes. This is done by cutting your work in a tile fashion. We're not quite there yet, but we will perfect it. As we are in the middle of build season right now for this year's FIRST Robotics, we have to pick our battles.

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And with the Handibot, we are able to cut out different materials to make gearbox plates, kids' robotics kits, signage, battery clips, camera mounts and more. It is becoming more integrated with our build season and will be an important part of our off-season builds.

It is also invaluable in terms of prototyping and when the kids come up with an idea or design, it is a relatively quick process from start to finish. Being able to cut out of a number of materials allows us to keep cost down while prototyping as well.

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Since integrating the Handibot into your shop, what can you now do that you couldn't do before?

For us, we had nothing in our shop that could come close to CNC routing at all. We had nothing in terms of funding, and very little in the way of tools. Along came the HandiBot, and all of a sudden we felt like we were 'in business'; a huge boost to our morale!

I also have to point out: When ShopBot asked us to represent them at the FRC World Championships in St. Louis in our rookie season, we were more than happy to oblige, taking the HandiBot with us as we competed in the Galileo Division. We found the tool to be an amazing addition to our fledgling team, so we devoted ourselves to learning the ins and outs very quickly and that started our journey into in-house CNC routing. It was also great to see the kids demonstrating the tool to other teams from around the world.

The results of our first year were humbling and made us so grateful that we had such amazing partners, tools and sponsors. The kids won the Rookie All Star Award, the Rookie Inspiration Award, placed 25th out of 100 teams in the Galileo Division at the World Championships, and we were winners of the Battle O' Baltimore (an FRC off-season event).

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Basically, the Handibot has allowed us to breathe easier knowing that we can cut prototypes and projects in-house and not have to make the four-hour round trip to our parent team in Virginia. It has freed us up tremendously and as a learning tool, it gives us the opportunity to teach a very modern way to machine materials to the kids on our team.

For me personally, I'm just trying to figure out how to build a poly knife block out of it. And from what we have done over the past year with our HandiBot, that will be a piece of cake!

Mark Evans, the Helicopter Technician Home DIY'er

Two years ago, a helicopter avionics technician sat in front of his computer monitor, dozing off. He wasn't at work: Mark Evans was off-shift and at home, waiting for the Handibot Kickstarter campaign to go live. "ShopBot was offering an Early Bird deal for the first 25 pledges, and I stayed up, worried that they would go quickly," Evans explains. "Well, I few asleep waiting for it to go live and sure enough, when I woke up all the early birds were taken." But Evans couldn't help himself, and purchased one at full price.

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Core77: What is your design/build background?

Mark Evans: I have always been a "wannabe" maker but never made as many things as I'd like, as I am not gifted with great manual dexterity. I mean, as per my job I am above average at detailed soldering, and I can use all standard tools fine—but you know that guy that can walk up to a bandsaw and cut something out so perfectly that it only requires a light final sanding afterwards? Well that is not me, I have to cut it out with an 1/8" safety zone and then sand away the excess!

What sets your work apart from other designer/builders?

I am of the opinion that I have never had an original idea in my life! I make things that I want, that please me and occasionally please others, but everything I have made you can find something similar on Pinterest, Etsy or with Google. I often put my own spin on an idea, but I never consider them truly original or even art, they are things that make my life easier and/or more pleasant.

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And what is it that you make?

I mostly build or modify things around the house that I need. I would see something I had to have, something unique that I couldn't pick up for less at a big box store, and I'd break out the jigsaw and drill; I'd kludge things together from what was in my head and crude drawings on the back of envelopes. So the second I heard about the Handibot, I knew it was what I had been hunting for, and was glad I had not bought something else.

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How has the Handibot changed your workflow?

Before, I kept everything as simple as I could, like I said just kind of kludging them together; but now that I've got the Handibot, my designs are getting more and more complex as I've been freed from the drudgery of jigging and cutting every feature. I consider the Handibot integral to all my projects, even if I don't use it on a particular item.

For example, large rectangles are easier to just cut out with my table saw, now that I have one. But I can then add details to them with the Handibot. Then, small pieces, pieces with a lot of detail, or odd shapes I do completely on the Handibot. And the ease with which the Handibot fabricates has allowed me to start considering aesthetics—I do a lot fewer plain rectangles now, because now an organic shape is just as easy if cutting digitally.

After getting started with the machine I met Eric Schimelpfenig online through his involvement with the Handibot. He is a big user of Sketchup, and seeing what he does got me using it. Now I won't start a project without first drawing it in Sketchup. This has saved me countless mistakes as when something is not going to work or fit, most of the time I can see that in the sketch, before I start cutting.

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At this point, I consider the Handibot a gateway drug--I really want a larger CNC router now! But if/when I get one, the Handibot will continue to get a lot of use because of its unique features.

Eric Schimelpfenig, the Pioneer/Educator/Mad Scientist

The Handibot's been out for less than two years, but in that time Eric Schimelpfenig has pushed the tool farther than most--and endeavors to share and teach every new tip, trick and unforeseen usage he discovers. At his website, Sketchthis.net, users can follow along as Schimelpfenig uses Google Sketchup and a Handibot (among other tools) to create everything from custom kitchens and bathrooms, open-source furniture, and his contributions to the Wikihouse, a project to develop open-source CNC-cut structures that can be cut from sheet goods on-site, or trucked in from a pre-fab facility.

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Core77: We need to ask you some questions about the Handibot, but reading through your bio, we're having a tough time figuring out how to describe what you do!

Eric Schimelpfenig: It's funny, an hour ago I was just trying to answer that question for somebody else. My current occupation is that I love figuring stuff out for people. My real passion is designing things, making things, and helping other people design and make things.

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I love experimenting with things like the Handibot or 3D printers, and then going to people and saying "Hey, this is what I can do with this machine. What do you think we could apply that to?" And that's what leads to these projects, like the big plywood house, or the indexing rail jig [Editor: More on this in a follow-up article], or making something as simple as picture frames.

Why mess around with the Handibot, and digital tools in general?

First, because it's awesome. Second, the digital stuff is really attractive to me because it allows me to do things that I wouldn't normally be able to do. I'm not a good woodworker, I really am not! And having these digital tools gives me the ability to do really interesting and amazing things in wood and other materials, that I would never have been able to do before.

I don't like mundane or repetitive tasks. And I think a lot of woodworking—the bread and butter, making-money stuff—can be cabinet boxes and items that require a lot of repetitive stuff. But these digital tools can take out a lot of that repetitive stuff, letting you focus your energy on creative things.

So when I say I'm not a good woodworker, I just get really bored cutting panels all day. And I would much rather have a computer do that for me, so that I can then come up with some complicated piece of joinery, or some really interesting way to assemble something. That frees up time to try to figure out something innovative, you know?

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Tell us about working on the Wikihouse project.

When people first look at something like a digitally fabricated home, they think that is just the most insane thing from outer space. But when you really break it down, all it is, is using off-the-shelf plywood with CNC machines that are probably already within a few miles of most people's homes, because they're in most medium-sized cabinet shops; literally nothing special there.

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I guess where it's maybe risky for me, is trying to figure out the things that haven't been figured out yet. Sometimes it costs a lot of money to figure new stuff out. From a business perspective, it seems like a pretty terrible idea because we can already build really good homes using regular saws and cheap materials.

But I want to expend all of this design time and effort. Because once it is figured out, afterwards it becomes really easy for people to do! So on some level it's a risk because sure, I could potentially spend all this time figuring out a problem that might not necessarily need to be solved in that way; but that pathway to get there is the really interesting thing. That's where I learn a lot, and can take that and find something that might actually work. So my attitude towards projects is "Failure is always an option--and oftentimes welcome!"

Building a house with the CNC machine is just mind-blowingly awesome, and aside from just being able to say you did something really cool, I think something like that will massively excite people to really look to these digital tools to build things. Whether it's just a chair, or an entire building.

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And that's what really attracts me to it, because there are huge complex problems to solve, and they're awesome when they're solved!

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You got your hands on one of the very first Handibot Beta units. What drove you to pick one up?

Because I realized I could have something that was reliable and heavy duty that was affordable, that I could now use to experiment and cut out joinery or any other things I decided I wanted to make on a CNC machine.

It's a really sturdy little machine, so it's something that you can work with outside or on a jobsite. And nothing like that has ever been made before. So it makes possible all these different scenarios that weren't possible before.

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And it's not that $3,000 is pocket change, but it is so much less expensive than anything else out there. Then there's the community element: Not only can I do interesting stuff, but I can see what everybody else was doing that was really interesting, and do the same stuff along with them. That's kind of the magic of like, when MakerBot first started out. They made the first sort of consumer-oriented 3D printer, and thousands of people were making stuff at the same time and all learning from each other. And I think the same opportunity is here with the Handibot.

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What do you use the Handibot on now, and where do you see it going in the future?

I use it whenever I can because it's a pretty flexible tool, and the stuff that I do is totally all over the board. The other day I was making picture frames with the Handibot, a few months ago I was using it to build PVC geodesic domes. Next month it'll be some other insane material.

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And definitely with the digital fabrication of homes. I think that's a huge thing and it's really awesome! And you'll start to see that the HandiBot also has this awesome in-the-field usage of making repairs to houses and on-site modifications, things like that. I think it will be like, the hand saw of the jobsite of the future. I mean really, anything where you need to bring the tool to a piece of work, I think there is really interesting stuff there that you can do, and stuff that people haven't thought of yet!